Accommodations are defined as adjustments for variances. As such, educational accommodations, the topic of this entry, are strategies utilized to remove content irrelevant variance from an assignment or test, allowing students to demonstrate what they have learned in relation to the specific academic content standard being targeted, without noise associated with any impairment related to a disability. For example, students with delayed processing may be given extended time on a standardized assessment in order to more accurately assess what they have learned rather than how rapidly the student can process the questions and retrieve the answers.

This entry further defines educational accommodations and looks at some of the issues surrounding the selection and use of accommodations. It then discusses the use of accommodations in classrooms and ...